2011 Spring 8th graders Silent Films

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My students created films that were inspired by the Silent Film genre.After analyzing the works of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Birth of a Nation, they then broke up into groups of four to each fulfill a film makers role: Director, Producer, Cinematographer and Actor/Writer.

footballbulling843.mp4 Watch on Posterous

The students and I also had a great time going through various facets of the film making process, in particular, the acting games where they performed charades, pantomine and various other acting games to get them using their bodies to tell a story, rather than their voices.

jealousy.mp4 Watch on Posterous

I feel like my students got really frustrated with the whole editing process, as some of their files were deleted, misplaced or somehow just disappeared due to one reason or another. After doing this project two times already, I will instead make sure that the students simultaneously upload to Dropbox and Jaycut.

Who_run_this_.mp4 Watch on Posterous

But overall, I was really happy with the work they put out this time around. We got more videos than I did last time, in fact, I was able to get every student to upload their film to You Tube.

stop%20bullying%202.mp4 Watch on Posterous

Feel free to click on one of these files if you would like to download it. Or you can scroll through the You Tube versions on the Embedr playlist above.

when_hide_and_seek_gets_serious.mp4 Watch on Posterous

I was also pleased to see that the students were able to utilize the green screen / chroma key feature in Jaycut. The students who made the "Last Mountain Dew" video utilized it to take advantage of a rainy day and shoot inside, and the group who made "Hide and Go seek..." where able to send students in environments that they didn't think possible.

last_mountain_dew_ever.mp4 Watch on Posterous

running_away_from_school.mp4 Watch on Posterous

school_fun.mp4 Watch on Posterous

The%20Hounting.mp4 Watch on Posterous

The%20most%20messed%20up%20movie%20ever.mp4 Watch on Posterous

 

2011 Spring 8th graders Silent Films

Build your own custom video playlist at embedr.com

My students created films that were inspired by the Silent Film genre.After analyzing the works of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Birth of a Nation, they then broke up into groups of four to each fulfill a film makers role: Director, Producer, Cinematographer and Actor/Writer.

footballbulling843.mp4 Watch on Posterous

The students and I also had a great time going through various facets of the film making process, in particular, the acting games where they performed charades, pantomine and various other acting games to get them using their bodies to tell a story, rather than their voices.

jealousy.mp4 Watch on Posterous

I feel like my students got really frustrated with the whole editing process, as some of their files were deleted, misplaced or somehow just disappeared due to one reason or another. After doing this project two times already, I will instead make sure that the students simultaneously upload to Dropbox and Jaycut.

Who_run_this_.mp4 Watch on Posterous

But overall, I was really happy with the work they put out this time around. We got more videos than I did last time, in fact, I was able to get every student to upload their film to You Tube.

stop%20bullying%202.mp4 Watch on Posterous

Feel free to click on one of these files if you would like to download it. Or you can scroll through the You Tube versions on the Embedr playlist above.

when_hide_and_seek_gets_serious.mp4 Watch on Posterous

I was also pleased to see that the students were able to utilize the green screen / chroma key feature in Jaycut. The students who made the "Last Mountain Dew" video utilized it to take advantage of a rainy day and shoot inside, and the group who made "Hide and Go seek..." where able to send students in environments that they didn't think possible.

last_mountain_dew_ever.mp4 Watch on Posterous

running_away_from_school.mp4 Watch on Posterous

school_fun.mp4 Watch on Posterous

The%20Hounting.mp4 Watch on Posterous

The%20most%20messed%20up%20movie%20ever.mp4 Watch on Posterous

 

Create your own video game like this one on Game Star Mechanic

You can check out this game that I created below by using the awesome web 2.0 tool, Gamestar Mechanic. It isn't the greatest game in the world, but the fact that I could create one and post it on the internet to share is pretty amazing, and why I am looking forward to teaching this to my students next week.

 

What is great about Gamestar, is that it is well balanced between playing, learning and creating. The site ACTUALLY encourages its users to play the video games through their tutorials called "Quest." The Quest is a little story that has the look and feel of a Japanese Manga, but as you play the game, you begin to learn the basics of video game design and you unlock characters and items to include in your games.

In FACT, you can't even publish your game until you complete all five episodes. So, as a teacher, I feel that this is a great (and free) tool to use with my students. Some of the games may be a little simple and cheesy, and the kids may be a bit frustrated that they can't import/create their own characters, items, music or backgrounds, BUT it is an excellent way for your students to create something utilizing 21st century skills, heavily bound by STEM standards, read comics while they learn and share their work on the internet for the world to play.

And coming from a gamer's perspective, for someone who grew up with a Nintendo Enterntainment System in their home as a kid and has since gone through the several generations of video game consoles, I think is a great way to hook the students into their own interests. If you have a student that is interested on some day creating their own games, check this one out to just get used to the whole theory and practice behind game design, but if you really want to get crazy with video game programming, then I would recommend Scratch (which is a bit more complicated)